When a hot tech start-up gets acquired by a mega-vendor, there are a number of natural evolutions that occur. Among them is the inevitable departure of some of the company’s founding members and other top talent. I say inevitable because the mindset required to get a start-up off the ground and humming is often very different than the mindset required to transition the company into a solid, revenue-generating unit of a larger organization.

So it’s not surprising that a handful of engineers have left Vertica since its acquisition by HP. In fact, its par for the course and actually a good sign that the Cambridge, Mass.-based Big Data analytics division’s engineers are coveted by exciting and emerging Big Data start-ups (of which there are dozens in the Boston area).

Consider Facebook. As the social network giant evolved into a $5b+ behemoth from a scrappy start-up, dozens of engineers have left to launch or join competing start-ups. The Valley is littered with companies populated with Facebook alumni, and that’s a good thing for Facebook’s legacy. The same is true for Vertica in Boston.

Meanwhile, Vertica continues to grow its customer base (marquee customers include Verizon, Novartis, Twitter and Blue Cross Blue Shield), is adding top talent from competitors itself (like former IBM Netezza Technical Director Jim Finnerty), and has a steady hand at the helm in the form of GM Colin Mahony.

HP VP and Vertica GM Colin Mahony live on theCUBE at HP Discover 2012.

As for its integration with the larger HP organization, Vertica has quickly become a critical component of HP’s software business (overall revenue of $4b+ in 2012). CEO Meg Whitman called out Vertica by name in her Q2 earnings call earlier this week, saying that momentum at Vertica helped offset the challenging environment in Europe. And Vertica also recently announced that it is hosting its first user conference in Boston this August, indicating an engaged and active customer base.

That said, challenges remain for Vertica and HP’s larger Big Data business. Namely, the Autonomy debacle continues to cast a shadow on HP’s efforts to build a robust analytics software business, and the company still hasn’t articulated how or if it plans to better integrate Autonomy, Vertica, Hadoop and its hardware assets into a comprehensive Big Data platform. The latter job could prove difficult for a company (HP) with little experience in the software business.

HP and Vertica have a big job ahead of it with plenty of associated challenges. But staunching a non-existent “brain-drain” isn’t one of them.

Wikibon and SiliconANGLE will continue covering HP’s evolving Big Data business closely, including theCUBE at HP Discover 2013 from June 11-13 and HP Vertica Big Data Conference August 5-7.

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